“Presto is one more costly example of mismanagement and waste of taxpayers’ dollars in this province,” said Klees in response to Auditor General Jim McCarter’s report that urged greater controls over the project and predicted its costs could exceed $700 million.

“The auditor once again has shed light on gross mismanagement by this government and its agency Metrolinx,” he told reporters Thursday.

McCarter described it as one of the more expensive fare card systems in the world.

“We say put a stop to this now. With every day that passes, more money is being wasted and the bureaucracy at Metrolinx keeps expanding,” Klees said, adding that he had a message for Metrolinx chair Rob Prichard: “You have a responsibility to ensure efficiency in this organization that you have been entrusted to oversee and we cannot accept that you would simply defend what is indefensible.”

The Tories have been warning the government for two years now, Klees said, that something about the introduction of electronic fare card system stinks.

“This does not pass the smell test,” he said.

Klees chided the government decision to enter into a $250-million agreement with Accenture to develop the Presto card system instead of looking to similar off-the-shelf systems already available.

He said a much better system would be one that accepted other cards as well, such as credit card or ATM, instead of relying on just one card, as is the case with the original Presto system. (Some of the rising cost has been attributed to introduction of Presto Next Generation — an updated system that allows for so-called open payments.)

Klees drew the parallel between the burgeoning cost of Presto and the controversial $1 billion for eHealth.

“This time the title is Presto, but the storyline is the same,” he said, adding that the province used “political blackmail” to force GTA municipalities to accept the Presto system or see its gasoline tax revenue withheld.

NDP MPP Rosario Marchese said breaking the contract with Accenture would be expensive and suggested instead fixing the system rather following Klees’ advice.

“We can’t simply say what has happened is completely bad, wrong (and) we have to start from scratch. I think there would be tremendous costs to the government in addition to what we have already paid if we were to simply end a contract. The idea is to fix it the best we can,” he said.

Marchese said the sad part is that an important agency like Metrolinx, charged with bringing in a seamless transit system across the GTA and beyond, is losing public confidence.

“There is simply no oversight,” he said.

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